Moscow's mayor attacks migrant workers' law

Labor migration is economic debauchery, but attempts made to restrict the number of migrant workers in Moscow are insufficient and ineffective, Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov declared today, RIA Novosti reports.

"We annually cut the quota [for foreign workers] by some 70,000-100,000 people," Luzkhov said at a meeting of the general council of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia. However, these quotas are not yet working, as the Federal Migration Service gives all the migrants work permits. More than 10 million foreigners entered Russia in 2010, according to official reports.

Luzhkov also offered to introduce quotas for the number of physically challenged persons that should work at every enterprise.

Relations between the long-serving Moscow mayor and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are believed to have soured recently, after an article by Luzhkov in the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta hinted at criticism of the Putin-Medvedev leadership tandem.

According to some media reports, quoting sources in the presidential staff and the ruling United Russia party, Luzhkov may be fired two or three weeks after his birthday on September 21, when he turns 74, but no later than December.